25 years ago, I read in the Economist that ‘the only industry the USA will be successful in, going forward will be the Entertainment Industry’.
Some time back, when I saw the movie ‘Hangover’ I remembered that prediction by The Economist.
The way I look at it, no country in the world could have a produced a movie like Hangover other than the USA.
The argument here is NOT if Hangover itself is a good movie or not – the discussion I am firing up is how a country can find and then leverage its natural resources in services and then exploit it to the fullest.
The USA is all about entertainment and service. Pilots crack jokes; waitresses sing for you; once I asked a server if i ‘could’ have a diet coke… he said no Sir, tell me i ‘demand’ a diet Coke. In a recent flight, the passengers were very unsettled and no one was listening to the public announcement statements – the air hostess came on the mike and screamt ‘oh my god, we have dustin hoffman at the back’…. The plane went absolutely silent and everbody stared at the back. The air hostess came on the mike and said ‘Cool.Now that I have your attention, listen to me….’ She was spontaneous in doing this!
I think the distribution of wealth, a certain standard of life (public and private) and the comfort of BEING WHO YOU ARE makes the USA one of the most fun places to be in. They exploit that experience of comfort in the service offerings they build…
Only in Hangover can you keep laughing for 10 minutes about a scene involving having sex with a Tiger!!!
Also, if you look at the USA musicians and the kind of global ears they capture, that’s another huge pie of entertainment they rule over…. Which one of us can ever say no to a Michael Jackson, Fleetwood Mac or The Doors..
The concept of ‘entertainment’ if you look carefully is also allowing the USA to rule the Internet – starting with Yahoo and now Facebook, Twitter and the rest… I mean Facebook is personal entertainment, isn’t it?
So, what are we in India going to be REALLY good at?
What will we be able to offer the world? What will make us world famous and successful?
Bollywood continues to suffer given the over emphasis on local markets and lopsided costs structures…also, our themes are so local, I doubt they will ever become world cinema…Can you think of Bollywood ever making an original hangover?
Will be be great at offshore services? Will we be the big medical destination of the world? So far we cant even leverage the Taj Mahal – can we turn around and become the worlds biggest leisure tourist spot?
What will we be good at?
What’s our economic destiny?
Ashwin C Parulkar
US has done it probably because- thy hardly ever have any burdon
we are good at following somethng-heavily burdoned, trapped…still India will be gud at selling mussle power
Ashwin C Parulkar
we r cultural by-products of- security- be it in th form of
Tradition/religion/community/rulers/customs/babas/gurus/family/job/govt. th list is long which all
culminates in to ‘inward osmosis’ which results in to lacking originality of idea, and fear for trying something new…
I experiance this in entertainment field w. ref. to new IP and content generation
Bharat
Can we ever have a place like Vegas in our country? I love that city ant the concept they create around this place “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” absolutely brilliant. That could be one of the only places where I would not worry if there is no Internet access in my hotel room.
We as Indians are bad at being tourists. Temples end up being a major reason for holidays and if we go visit a non-temple place, we would want to make the most of site visiting in the shortest amount of time. The holidaying concept has been completely misunderstood.
Ashwin C Parulkar
ppl pl answ- 3 simple qn
wht is the indias economic destiny?
can we make Hangover in India
what are we gud at?
instead talikng abt how bad we r ….I think nt being cummunal, it is a common experiance Jyoti Sadly
the Gujus are top of the list being ‘Legendary”
Ashwin C Parulkar
Let me answ this-
1A. YES we can make HANGOVER in INDIA, talend and creativity has no boundry, and its certainly nobodys
Monopoly , Rahman has proven th point
if th Dir like -Dibakar baranrjee(oye lucky oye) Sagar Bellare(Bheja Fry) Madhu…r are few to name , and there is some immense talent
PPL like Alok – can experiment with there Cr or so to Hunt best script, or get it written frm writer , all it needs is petience for such script…I think Genius can come frm any where
2nd- our Economic destiny – Growth …volumes r spoken on it….young hopeful nation now th snowball has jst moved , th elephant is jst standing
3rd-wht r we gud at- still think- Gud at being told wht is to be done,..and follow…and sell mussle power…
we have teriffic Agriculture and TECHNOLOGICAL IQ –yet UNTAPPED
Jyoti Shukla said: